You should check with a lawyer as to the applicability of PI licensing to your particular circumstances. The relevant section of the OHIO revised code seems to be
http//
Note
(H) “Private investigator,” “business of private investigation,” “security guard provider,” and “business of security services” do not include
(2) Attorneys at law or any expert hired by an attorney at law for consultation or litigation purposes;
A lot of people look at Kessler's map and take the first response as gospel, but you have to remember that he asked a broad question, and did not specifically ask about computer forensics performed for lawyers.
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. Once again, ask your lawyer.
Hmm, interesting. I already talked to the lawyer and told him that there were laws in several states, including Ohio, which required computer forensics specialists to have a P.I. license in order to do the work. He'd never heard of it before, but thanked me for letting him know.
So, I guess legally I could probably do it, however I've already expressed to him that it would probably be best to have a qualified forensic scientist perform the actual work on the computers for the sake of his case. I did give him some suggestions regarding locating forensic scientist assistance and offer to serve as a technical consultant in case he has any need of translating results. We'll see how it goes. He seems to be a very agreeable individual, but I have a feeling I probably won't hear back from him.
On a side note, does anyone know if it's possible to find the date that an SD card was first plugged into a computer?
Hmm, interesting. I already talked to the lawyer and told him that there were laws in several states, including Ohio, which required computer forensics specialists to have a P.I. license in order to do the work. He'd never heard of it before, but thanked me for letting him know.
And, remember, the lawyer doesn't represent you, he represents his client. As such, his specific interests may be adverse to yours or, at least, your concerns may be irrelevant to him.
You'll need to have a contract which outlines the services that you intend to perform and the limits of your liability as well as how disputes will be resolved. It will probably cost you a few hundred to a few thousand dollars just to do this. In addition, are you insured against liability for malpractice or malfeasance?
All of these must be considered if you are going to offer services as a professional outside the scope of your current employer.
Again, just be careful. This is not as easy as putting on a different hat.
..for you to take on a case with zero experience and then to represent yourself as an expert is an extremely slippery slope, one the other attorney would have a field day with. It is easy to discredit someone who has no experience with but a few well placed questions.
You add more credibility by turning this case down given your inexperience and now begin the journey into the realm of Digital Forensics.
If the attorney who sought your services was not aware of the state requirements for forensic investigators and would have used you as his expert witness, I'm afraid he is not much of an attorney and would steer as far away from him as you possibly can…
So, just so we're clear, I'm not taking this case. Everyone can wipe their proverbial brows. -)
So then, where does ones' training begin? I'm interested in at least learning the basics, as a basic tool set would help me in my current job. I already work full time. I put myself through my Associates via night classes over 4 years. Now I have a daughter and zero free time.
Do you guys have any suggestions?
First of all, you need to consider the economic realities. If you are just going to do data recovery, with no chance of litigation, you can do that relatively inexpensively and without much training (although without the latter you may miss things that a more experience investigator wouldn't).
If you want to learn digital forensics, there are a few things to consider. For example, while Harlan and others have noted that it is possible to do a great many things using open source tools and a bit of custom programming the it is also the case that sometimes a commmercial tool will help you do the most common things, efficiently. Prices for the most common of these start at around $1500 USD/year.
If you want to be full service (PDA, cell phones, Macs, Unix, etc.), you can double or triple that amount, easy. If you want to process e-mails in such a way as to render them in a manner which is best suited to litigation, add another few thousand to the mix (up to $10,000 if you want Nuix).
Then, again, you'll also need insurance against malpractice and failure to perform. Not a big deal if you are doing this full time but it might be prohibitively expensive to do this kind of work on the side.
I'm not saying that you couldn't or shouldn't but you need to be realistic about the cost versus your projected revenue.
Another thing to think about is marketing. How do you get your "brand" in front of the client.
I'm not a big one for taking college classes because, at this point, I'm not sure what you are getting. There are no accreditation/certification programs for digital forensics curricula and so it is hard to assess the quality of these. Furthermore, college is expensive and I'm not sure that the money can be better spent, elsewhere.
For about the same money as a three credit course, you could put together a very nice library of the "classics" of digital forensics and, from these, develop a very nice self-instruction program using your own computers and devices.
Or, you could become certified through a commercial certification program which would make you an expert but might make someone more likely to take you on.
In any event, it is certainly possible for you to do much of the training, yourself, though it sounds as though you don't have a lot of free time. But before you do, consider whether you think that the rewards will outweigh the costs.